Reflection Eight

Week Eight Reflection
Leigha Tracey – BSU Student Intern
For the week of October 7-11

Participation/Observation (20)

I did a fair amount of observation this week. I shadowed an eighth grade student, which was very interesting. I created an “audit permission slip” for her to have her teachers sign so they knew that I was coming to observe their class. I was able to see quite a variety including a consumer and family science class, English and history. The teaching styles were varied and much different from my own class. I noticed that the consumer and family science teacher had a difficult time keeping the students focused. I had the same feeling in the English class. The history class was a straight lecture class with the monotone voice and everything, but the students were very quiet and not disruptive. My impression is that this has to do a lot with gender. I imagine that a large portion of the students have a female as their caretaker and a male as the disciplinarian. I think this makes a huge difference in how students act and react in school. I hate to say that men in this field have an easier time with classroom management, but I personally believe that they do. My own philosophy on classroom management includes stating reasonable expectations in the beginning, being consistent in enforcing these expectations and letting the students help create classroom rules so they take ownership in how the class operates.

I had the opportunity during these observation periods to see how teachers incorporate literacy standards into their subject areas. The history teacher used a reading and the consumer and family science teacher incorporated spelling and vocabulary into her lessons. The techniques seemed very natural and I do not think that the addition of these requirements puts any strain on the class. I did feel that the straight lecture classes were pretty dry, but I feel that that is something that students have to learn as well. I think it is important for students to learn how to focus and pay attention for more than mere moments. Students today have a much larger challenge in this area as they are constantly being stimulated in their lives (television, video games, constant activity), but this will not always be the case. This is not to say that teachers should ignore ways of knowing, but it does mean that I do not believe that it is a teacher’s job or anyone’s job to entertain children in an academic environment.

I had an interesting interview with a custodian this week. He has been on the job for 14 years. He also managed the Carmel high School custodial staff for many years before an illness last year. I asked him what teachers could do to make his life easier and was very interested in his candid answers. I think that I will always remember his words.

This week students did a writing assignment on good/bad teachers. Mark gave me the papers to read and to keep. They were very humorous to read. Most of the advice was vague, such as “don’t be boring,” but there were a few nuggets here and there. This being my last full week with my classes, I feel that I will miss being around the Jr. High School students. I love their energy and even their moods swings. Thankfully, I don’t mind being interrupted every 30 seconds, but I have isolated one major pet peeve – I can’t stand chatter at the beginning of class. My classes do a lot of group work and have a large amount of time to interact with each other, so I feel that they can give me their undivided attention for the first minutes of class. I will definitely utilize “opening activities” in my classes and will set the stage for QUIET at the beginning of each class. Nothing really gets me except having to talk over people in an effort to get them to calm down for directions. So, students in my future classes will know that when they walk INTO my room, it will be quiet until I have completed giving directions, then it is time for fun. I just feel that the chaos at the beginning of class makes it more difficult for students to focus and synthesize directions. Maybe it is a long shot to think that I can accomplish this, but I would like to try. I will use opening activities, play music at the beginning of class or play video clips to get their minds focused on the class and not what has been happening out in the hallway.

Teaching (15)

Teaching this week felt normal, if there is such a thing. I did a lot of preparation work for my newspaper class. I went through all of their folders and gave them feedback. This was easy to do as there are only four groups and I think it helped to organize the final tasks. I also prepared an overhead with a task checklist, so they could refer to it during class. The projects are going well and I think we are all learning. I reminded the class that this was my first “go” at doing this and that we have to work together. I have amended a few things in response to their suggestions and that seems to have worked really well. They have been very forgiving. I am anxious to see their final products, but most of all to read their project evaluations. I want to see what they feel they learned about newspaper and working as part of a team. I have been proud of how they have worked together and I have seen some teams struggle, then pull ahead when they got together and worked on their goals. This has been a great experience, even though most of my job is to answer questions, trouble shoot and watch.
As I mentioned above some students wrote essays on good and bad teachers. I am wondering what the word “boring” actually means. Does it mean that a class is hard and that they don’t understand, so it is frustrating? Is it that certain classes go over the same material they learned in fifth grade and they are tired of being drilled on it? Is it the presentation of the material? A combination? I plan to explore this, because I do want to know what reaches students. I read a few lines from a student about being a friend. It was interesting that she and several others mentioned wanting to know more about teachers as people, what they like, don’t like – what their lives are outside of class. One suggestion was to have things decorating the room that were not subject related. I thought this was a good idea. Why not incorporate a big snowboarding poster in with newspaper front pages? The premise is that students want to see teachers as people that think, worry, have problems, and laugh, just like they do. THAT is good advice.